I’d like to take a moment to mention that any use of the term “hypnotism” before 1841 is speculative since James Braid was the first to use that term in 1841. Braid adopted the term hypnotism to emphasize the state of the subject, rather than the techniques applied by the operator.
Braid’s technique was a subject-centered approach, [...]
In today’s usage Animal Magnetism refers to a person’s sexual attractiveness but this is misleading. According to Franz Mesmer, Animal Magnetism (French: magnétisme animal), as it was originally used, referred to a “Magnetic fluid” or “ethereal medium” residing inside of living beings. It is worth noting that Mesmer chose the word “animal” to offer contrast between [...]
It is worth noting that any use of the term “hypnotism” before 1841 is speculative since James Braid was the first to use that term in 1841. Braid adopted the term hypnotism to emphasize the state of the subject, rather than the techniques applied by the operator. Braid’s technique was a subject-centered approach, unlike the [...]
Charles Lafontaine (1803 – 1892) an early Swiss mesmerist that lived in Geneva published a journal Le magnétiseur. He was a failed actor but a successful (and wealthy) traveling mesmerist (or animal magnetiser as it was known then).
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Dr. John Elliotson (1791-1868), an English surgeon, professor of medicine at the University College and an inventor (he invented the stethoscope), reported in 1834 numerous painless surgical operations that had been performed using Mesmerism. In 1842 John Elliotson, founded a hospital for the use of hypnosis in surgical operations. Despite his success in establishing that [...]
In the 1840s and 1850s, Before the development of chemical anesthetics, Dr. James Esdaile (1805-1859), a University of Edinburgh trained medical doctor documented 345 major operations that he performed using “Mesmeric sleep” as the sole anesthetic in British India.
Esdaile did not follow the techniques that Mesmer used. Esdaile procedure was as follows:
“Esdaile’s method was to [...]
Dr. Récamier
In 1821, Récamier was the first physician known to have used something a method of hypnosis as anesthesia while he operated on patients. That state of mind was known as Mesmeric coma.
Carl Reichenbach
Carl Reichenbach, a notable chemist, geologist, metallurgist, naturalist, industrialist and philosopher experimented aiming to find a scientific validity to Mesmeric energy. [...]
In the early 19th century, after his appointment as a professor of Philosophy at the University of France at Nîmes, a Goan Catholic monk called José Custódio de Faria brought “Animal Magnetism” back to the public attention in Paris when he introduced oriental hypnosis to Parisians. Abbé Faria was born in the state of Goa [...]
Marquis de Puységur (1751–1825), a French aristocrat from one of the most illustrious families of the French nobility was another student of Mesmer. Puységur learned about Mesmerism from his brother Antoine-Hyacinthe, the Count of Chastenet. After hypnotising a 23-year-old peasant Victor Race. Race was easily hypnotized by Puységur who siplayed a sleeping trance not seen [...]
Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer
Around 1770, a physician from Austria, Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), investigated an effect that he coined “Animal Magnetism” (as in the Magnetism of living beings), later to be called “Mesmerism”.
Legend has it that Mesmer was a student of Father Hell and obtained his first magnets from him. It is well accepted [...]